Homilies on 1 Timothy 12.2

Just as we take this bodily food every day, so, he says, let us always take the words about the faith, and always be nourished on them. What is “being nourished”? Constantly turning over the same things, always meditating on the same things; for this is no ordinary food. “But refuse profane and old wives’ myths.” Whom does he mean here? The Jewish observances. And does he call them myths? Very much so, either because of the distortions or because they are out of season. What is in season is useful; out of season it is not only useless but harmful. Imagine a man of twenty putting himself to his nurse’s breast: how ridiculous he is, because it is out of season. Do you see how he called them both profane and old-womanish? Old-womanish because they are old, profane because they hinder the faith. To bring back under fear a soul that has risen above these things belongs to profane precepts.

“Train yourself for godliness,” that is, for pure faith and an upright life; for this is godliness. So we need training. “For bodily training,” he says, “is of little profit.” Some say this was said of fasting; far from it. Fasting is not bodily training but spiritual. If it were bodily, it would nourish the body; but since it wastes, thins, and emaciates the body, it is not bodily. So he is not speaking of the discipline of the body. We need, then, the training of the soul; for the other has no gain but benefits the body a little, while the discipline of godliness yields its fruit in the age to come too, and gains both here and there. “The saying is trustworthy”: that is, true, that it gains both here and there. See how everywhere he adds this; it needs no proof, but he simply declares it, for he was speaking to Timothy. So here too we are in good hope. One who is conscious of no evil in himself, who achieves countless good deeds, rejoices even here; just as the wicked man is punished not only there but here too, living always with fear, daring to look no one in the face with confidence, trembling, pale, in anguish. Are not the greedy and the thieves like this, never confident about what they have? Do not adulterers and murderers live a most wretched life, looking with suspicion even at the sun? Is this life? Not at all, but a grievous death.

“For to this end,” he says, “we toil and suffer reproach, because we have hoped in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of believers.” As if he said: Why do we wear ourselves out, unless we expect what is to come? Why does everyone reproach us? Have we not suffered so many terrible things, insults, abuse, countless evils? Did we endure these in vain? If we had not hoped in the living God, why would we have endured them? And if he saves unbelievers here, much more will he save believers there. What salvation does he mean? That of the world to come. “Who is the Savior,” he says, “of all, especially of believers”: that is, he shows greater care for believers. Or he means meanwhile the salvation here. And how, someone says, is he the Savior of believers? If he were not their Savior, nothing would have prevented them, warred upon by all, from having been destroyed long ago. Here he also spurs Timothy on to face dangers, not to lose heart, having such a God, nor to need help from others, but to bear everything willingly and nobly; since even those who gape after worldly things undertake their affairs with their eyes on the hope of gain.

So this is now the last time. “For in later times,” he says, “some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars whose own conscience is seared, forbidding marriage.” What then, someone says? Do we not forbid marriage? We do not forbid it, God forbid, to those who wish to marry; but those who do not wish to marry we urge on to virginity. It is one thing to forbid and another to leave a person master of his own choice. One who forbids does so absolutely; but one who leads toward virginity as the greater thing does so not by forbidding marriage but by urging virginity. “Forbidding marriage,” he says, “requiring abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.” Well did he say, “who know the truth.” So the former rules were a type; for nothing is unclean by nature; it becomes so by the conscience of the one who partakes. Why then did God lead the Jews away from many foods? To cut off their great luxury. If he had said, “Do not eat, because of luxury,” they would not have put up with it; so he shut it within the necessity of law, so that through greater fear they might keep away the more. That the fish is more unclean than the pig is plain to everyone; and yet he did not lead them away from fish. How grievous luxury was for them, hear Moses saying: “He ate and grew fat and thick, and the beloved one kicked.” There is also another reason: so that, being kept within narrow limits, [they might slaughter sheep and oxen;] because of Apis and the calf he kept them from the other animals; for that one is unclean, ungrateful, foul and ….

“Put these things before them,” meditate on these things; for this is what “being nourished on the words of the faith” means. Do not only exhort others, he says, but keep up your own meditation on them. “For being nourished,” he says, “on the words of the faith and of the good teaching which you have followed. But refuse profane and old wives’ myths.” Why did he not say, “Bear with such things,” but “Refuse”? He hints by this at complete avoidance. What he says is this: Never even go down into the arena to dispute with them, but exhort your own people in these things. One can never do any good by fighting with the perverse, unless perhaps we think some harm may come if we seem to decline discussion with them out of weakness. “Train yourself for godliness,” that is, for a pure life, for the best conduct. One who is in training, even when it is not the time for contests, does everything as though he were contending: he keeps from everything, he is always in the contest, he sweats much. “Train yourself,” he says, “for godliness. For bodily training is of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, holding promise for the present life and for the life to come.” And why, someone says, did he mention this bodily training? To show by comparison the superiority of the other: that bodily training, though it has many labors, has no gain worth mentioning, but godliness has gain continual and abundant; just as when he says, “to adorn themselves not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire, but with what befits women who profess godliness, with good works.”

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and suffer reproach.” Paul was reproached, and are you distressed? Paul toiled, and do you want to live in luxury? He would not have obtained such great good things if he had lived in luxury. If worldly things, perishable and corruptible, never come to people without labors and sweat, much less spiritual things. Yes, someone says, but they have often come to many by inheritance. Even if they come, keeping and preserving them is not without labor; those who have acquired them must toil and suffer no less. And I do not yet mention that many, after much labor and great suffering, have been wrecked at the very mouth of the harbor, when a wind fell upon them from somewhere and caused shipwreck in the very hope of good things. With us there is nothing of the kind: it is God who promises, and “hope does not put to shame.” Or do you not know, you who are engaged in worldly affairs, how many after countless labors have not enjoyed the fruits, because death carried them off first, or a change of fortune came, or disease fell upon them, or informers attacked them, or some other cause (for human affairs are many), and they left with empty hands?

But, someone says, do you not see those who succeed, who with few labors have acquired great goods? What goods? Money, houses, so many acres of land, herds of slaves, weights of silver and gold? Do you call these goods, and do you not hide your face and sink into the ground, you, a man commanded to practice the philosophy of heaven, gaping after earthly things and calling goods what is worth nothing? If these are goods, those who possess them must certainly be called good; for how is one who has something good not good? What then, tell me? When those who possess them are greedy, shall we call them good? If wealth is a good, and it is gathered by greed, the more it grows, the more it will make its possessor be thought good. Is the greedy man good, then? If wealth is good and increases by greed, the greedier he is, the better he will be. Do you see the contradiction? But suppose he is not greedy, someone says. And how is that possible? The passion is deadly, and it is not, it is not possible to be rich without doing wrong. Christ too declared this, saying, “Make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of unrighteousness.” What then, someone says, if he received his inheritance from his father? He received what had been gathered by injustice. His ancestor was not rich from Adam on; it is likely that many others came before him, and that among the many someone was found who had unjustly taken and enjoyed what belonged to others.

What then? Did Abraham, someone says, have unjust wealth? And Job, the blameless, the righteous, the true, the God-fearing, who kept away from every evil thing? Their wealth was not in gold or silver or buildings, but in flocks; and besides, Job was enriched by God. That it was in flocks is clear from this: the writer of the book, listing what befell that blessed man and saying that his camels, mares, and donkeys perished, did not say that they came and carried off treasures of gold. And Abraham too was rich, but in servants. What then? Did he not buy them? Not at all; that is why Scripture said that the three hundred eighteen were born in his house. He also had sheep and oxen. Where, then, did he get the gold he sent to Rebecca? He received gifts from Egypt, without using force or doing wrong.